The Channel 4 HQ in Liverpool

Liverpool has officially launched a “compelling bid” to be the new home of Channel 4, after Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram announced their campaign to bring the broadcaster to Merseyside.

They believe Liverpool city council’s aspirations to create one of the largest film studios in the UK at the former Littlewoods Building on Edge Lane, combined with the Ten Streets creative quarter project, could give the city a unique bid.

The council also claim they have “several ready to go, high quality locations” to show the station who are on the hunt for a new HQ.

Under the new plans 300 of its 800 staff would move out of the capital - and bringing one of Britain’s biggest broadcasters to Liverpool would dramatically transform the face of the city.

Council purchase of Liverpool Central Station shopping centre

Pictured Central Station, Ranelagh Street. Photo by Colin Lane

Liverpool council is planning to buy the shopping centre above Liverpool Central station in a move that could help pave the way for a future expansion of the station and the massive Lewis’s redevelopment.

Liverpool Central is one of the busiest stations in the UK outside London with some 16m passengers in 2017.

But it is congested and there is currently little room to expand.

Developer Augur is planning to build the Circus shopping and leisure scheme behind Lewis’s, on the land behind Central Station, and has said it would help Network Rail to expand the station.

Meanwhile Central Shopping Centre is home to brands including Sainsbury’s and Greggs, as well as the famous Leather Shop.

It sits in the area the council calls the Knowledge Quarter Gateway which includes Lime Street and the Adelphi and is a bridge between the city centre and the university area.

In a report approved by the council’s cabinet on Friday, the council said it plans to buy the 114-year lease on the shopping centre from Aviva Life & Pensions UK.

Simultaneously it will enter into a 20-year “underlease” with Liverpool CSC Ltd, a company related to Circus developer Augur.

The council has not revealed how much its purchase will cost as it is commercially confidential.

But it says the underlease with Liverpool CSC will earn it £4.3m over the first five years “meaning it (the council) will make a profit over the loan repayments to facilitate the purchase”.

Augur also has an option under the deal to buy the centre after five years. That in turn could enable Augur to work with Network Rail to open up new ways into Central Station below.

Lane7 also regularly puts “pop-up attractions” in its centres, including giant remote-controlled car racing rigs and traditional 80s-style arcade games

An ‘exclusive’ bar and restaurant by Michelin star group

Il Palazzo in Water Street

An “exclusive” bar and restaurant backed by the group behind a chain of Michelin-starred restaurants is set to open in the heart of Liverpool’s commercial district.

The Ormer Restaurant Group, which also runs a Michelin-starred restaurant in Jersey, promises its new restaurant on Water Street will bring a “new elegant style of dining and socialising” to Liverpool.

The bar and restaurant has also been granted permission to stay open in to the early hours, previously warning that refusing permission for the bar to stay open past midnight would “clearly be against” the aim of making Liverpool a 24-hour city.

Developers were originally given the go-ahead to convert the listed Il Palazzo building by planners last June but had been trying to get the council to grant longer opening hours.

They had pointed out that nearby venues like the Alchemist and Vincent Cafe were able to operate past midnight.

The premises will now be able to stay open until 1.30am from Thursday to Saturday, as opposed to the midnight closing time previously imposed by planners.

As well as the bar and restaurant, there are also two and three-bedroom apartments planned for the upper floors of the listed building.

A new purpose for the old magistrates court on Dale Street

The ECHO was given a sneak peak inside the old Magistrates Court on Dale Street, which is now lying vacant following its move to the Crown Court. Photo by James Maloney

Court bosses are in talks to sell the old Magistrates Court building in Dale Street.

The historic landmark closed in 2015 and is now boarded up. Court hearings moved to the Queen Elizabeth II court building in Derby Square. The Ministry of Justice had hoped to sell the court for £2m.

Merseyside Police said in 2015 that it wanted to buy the building to turn it into a dog training centre. But in 2016 it said that was no longer the plan.

Since then little has happened to the building which some neighbours said had become a magnet for anti-social behaviour before it was boarded up.

The ECHO asked the Government what its plans were for the building which dates back to 1857 and was designed by John Weightman.

A spokesperson for HM Courts and Tribunals Service said: “We are in on-going negotiations about the sale of the former Magistrates Court in Dale Street and we are working to ensure the best outcomes for the taxpayer and the city of Liverpool.”

Neighbours are keen that the empty building should be brought back to life.

Gareth Morgan, boss of craft beer bar Dead Crafty Beer Company opposite, said: “It’s a tragic waste of a building and it should be used for something.”

Plans for Martins Bank

The former Martins Bank on Water street in Liverpool city centre which is set to become the city's first luxury five star hotel. Photo by Colin Lane

Plans to turn Liverpool’s stunning Martins Bank building into a luxury hotel could be in doubt after the building was sold as part of an £858m deal.

Hotels group Principal was set to convert the massive Water Street landmark, one of the finest 20th century buildings in Britain, into an upscale hotel.